You are already familiar with some components of this release, but now with new names:

RealVideo 10 : This is the new and official name for RV9 EHQ, which has been in Beta since a few months back and released for testing here, with various improvements added along the way, much based on feedback from this forum. RealVideo 10 corresponds to the latest version of RV9 EHQ discussed here, but with a slightly different way to choose codec and encoding complexity. Since it is RV9 EHQ it is fully backwards compatible with older players which has the RV9 decoder. It is an encoder side improvement, where as you know we gain quality by letting the encoder spend more time making wise decisions.

RealProducer 10 : This is what was developed as the Helix Producer 9.2 in the Helix Community. What is new since the latest Milestone is that the most recent RV 10 encoder DLL is included (as discussed above), AAC has replaced ATRAC3 as the high bitrate audio codec, and a GUI version of Producer is now finally available! (as a Preview release, the Producer team has been very busy). The Producer SDK on Windows also includes HE-AAC encoding.

NEW:

RealAudio 10 : This is a family of audio codecs. New codecs are AAC, RealAudio Lossless, and RealAudio Multi-channel. RA8 (cook) is used for 96 kbps and below. HE-AAC in the form of aacPlus from Coding Technologies is included on Windows.

RealPlayer 10 : The next version of RealPlayer, now back to the name everyone recognizes, with many improvements, and friendlier than before. I will probably start another thread on this topic by itself, since I am sure there will be plenty of feedback. It includes full support for AAC ripping, and AAC and HE-AAC playback. RealPlayer 10 includes a new audio and video guide, as well as an integrated music store. Download the RealPlayer10Beta for Windows 98/NT/2000/XP.
See How to make RealPlayer 10 behave nicely in case you have doubts

RealPlayer Music Store : The music store integrated in RealPlayer 10.What is different about this compared to the other stores, is that it uses 192 kbps AAC for the best possible audio quality, while other stores use 128 kbps of various formats. At the launch it includes 300,000 songs and more added every day.

Helix Producer 10.0 Beta from helixcommunity.org in the Binaries section (Binaries -> (click here for distribution binaries) -> Helix DNA Producer -> Command Line Application)
If you have older RealProducers installed, be aware that your PATH environment variable may be set so that the wrong producer.exe is called when try to use Producer 10 cmd line. You will then get very confusing errors.

I hate the limitations in RealProducer 10 Basic. What can I do?
Personally I agree, and your feedback has been forwarded. Making the Plus version free is now being considered. In the meantime, the command line Helix Producer 10.0 has all the features of RealProducer 10 Plus, except the GUI. Use Helix Producer 10.0 with one of the soon to be updated front-ends, or be part of a small l33t and use the command line directly.

RP 10 looks almost the same. What are the improvements?
Please see this post. It also includes information about some of the improvements.

I am having trouble installing RealPlayer 10. The installer does not work.
Maybe .r1pclean.exe will help. Did you ever install a 'codec pack'? This should remove all remnants of old players, codecs and reg keys, as well as RealProducers and RealServers, hopefully also codec packs, which may be causing this problem in the first place, I don't really know.. Use at your own risk.

I have tested that it does clean up after RealAlternative and allows RP10 to be installed. It usually reports "Cannot load setu3260.dll", but still does registry cleaning. Without running .r1pclean.exe first, RealPlayer 10 fails to run after installation, when RealAlternative is installed.

RealVideo 10

Is it true that RV 10 is the same as RV9-EHQ
Yes.

So it's fully backwards compatible with RV9 decoders then?
Yes, it even has the same FourCC code 'rv40'. When playing RV10 in RealPlayer 10, we added some special bits that identify the format, such that it displays RV10. Older players will display RV9.

How do I encode with the best possible quality?
Choose rv10 as the codec. It defaults to the best possible quality. For lower quality but faster encoding, choose rv9, or for backwards compatibility with certain mobile devices, rv8. Separately, each codec has three encoding complexity levels, 'high', 'medium, and 'low'. For the details please see this post. Also see the encoding advice in the main RealVideo Information thread and the thread on RealVideo 10 'Elysian' for a completely new 2-pass rate control.

RealAudio 10 : AAC and HE-AAC

Is aacPlus (AAC+) the same as HE-AAC?
Yes. HE-AAC (High Efficiency AAC is the name used by standardization in MPEG). aacPlus was Coding Technologies' name for their technology while developing it.

Which file format is AAC wrapped in when encoded in Producer or ripped in RealPlayer 10?
The current file format for AAC is RM (.ra). RealPlayer Gold will instead rip to ADTS .aac, but the feedback concerning the preference for MP4/M4A has been forwarded, and for Gold the format will most likely change.

Why is not HE-AAC encoding supported in RealProducer, or why does not RealPlayer 10 rip music to HE-AAC at 96 kbps and below?
RealPlayer 10 does not currently rip to HE-AAC, because we did not license it for general encoding, as well as lack of HE-AAC codecs for many devices we need to support.

What are the new 4CC codes for the AAC codec flavors when wrapped in RM?
raac: AAC or HE-AAC
racp: HE-AAC
The player's AAC decoder, raac.dll, can decode both AAC and HE-AAC.

Which file formats for AAC and HE-AAC are supported in RealPlayer 10?
RM of course *). Raw ADTS (.aac) plays back without problems. MP4 wrapped AAC and HE-AAC files also play, but auto-update does not work for mp4. To get the components needed, try to open .aac file in RealPlayer. RealPlayer will auto-update with plugins for H.263 Video and 3GPP. Don't worry, this also means AAC. Also read the question below re auto-update and .mp4 files.

Playback problems with HE-AAC in RealPlayer 10
RealPlayer 10 can not currently play back HE-AAC in RM due to two bugs: 1) the AAC renderer plugin does not recognize the 4cc racp for HE-AAC, triggering an auto-update request. Hex-edit to raac is possible. However, then 2) raac.dll will crash, due to another bug. Both bugs have been fixed, and will be included in the Gold release of RealPlayer 10. In the meantime, you get obtain a fix here: HE-AAC (racp) fix for RealPlayer 10 Beta. Note that neither of these bugs affect how Media Player Classic plays back HE-AAC in RM, even when it uses the buggy raac.dll. You need the latest release of MPC: 6.4.7.6 or higher.

When I try to open .aac or .mp4 file in RealPlayer 10, it opens the web browser to play the file, instead of running auto-update
This is caused by the .aac or .mp4 filetype being registered on your system. It is unfortunate that in order to get around this, you have to delete the filetype you are trying to open (AAC or MP4). It is easy to re-create though afterwards, with whichever is your player for this format.

Is it possible to encode HE-AAC in Helix Producer 10?
Yes *), at least in the command line version of Helix Producer. However, the HE-AAC encoder does not ship with Helix Producer 10 or RealProducer 10, but instead the Helix Producer SDK as an add-in. The AAC codec name is 'raac', the HE-AAC codec name is 'racp'. The codec flavors (bitrates) can be found in Producer's documentation and in this post.
*) No, currently, due to a bug. Will be fixed in next Milestone, you can also get a fixed DLL here.

MPC chooses decoders and splitters automatically, but can be configured. With RP10 installed, it prefers raac.dll for RM files (raac = Coding Technologies decoder), otherwise uses DirectShow decoder, if available. Configure in MPC in options, filter, over-rides, which DS filter is preferred, if many are installed.

Vp6 is currently leading the game in Low Bitrate encoding where RealVideo has nearly NO serious competition at all in the past.

However i would always think that Karl would have something up his sleeve.....

It is also good to know the AACPlus is included. BUT, just to remind all that accPLUS is slightly different to HE_AAC. Whichever is better it will be still be better than the good old cook @ 64 Kbps.

Not to mention that there is still quite a bit of room for aacplus to be tweaked. ( Not that means we will get it.... )

On the Video Side and producer side. I think it is the marketing and the head who make the decision for naming it as Real10. I really hope that apart from the planned much updated version of PP in Realplayer, there will be some other major improvement as well. And I would still like to see a decoder only pack for Rv10 to be used with MPC.
Since with all these Real Store thing i think RealPlayer will be as bloated as it use to be.

It is basically an updated RealONE. I would call it RealONE V2.1
It is 9.33Mb Dowloaded compare to 8.27Mb of RealONE v2
It is a new features Called Perfect Play which basically cache some file when playing Streaming clips on internet and provide smoother playback.
It has new option that allow you to set message centre to not update itself and may be not to pop up.
It has a new play list, that looks abit like winamp style playlist.

Originally posted by Latexxx
AacPlus is just a marketing name for Coding Technologie's HE AAC encoder

exactly
he-aac = aacplus = aac+ = aac+sbr

the official notation in the mpeg-4 standard is he-aac (aac is part of the mpeg-4 standard) and it is also most widely used afaik (you will find the most results by searching for he-aac on doom9 and hydrogenaudio i guess)

Quote:

Originally posted by Sirber
Will AAC and HE-AAC works in Matroska?

of course it already works for a long time

__________________
Between the weak and the strong one it is the freedom which oppresses and the law that liberates (Jean Jacques Rousseau)I know, that I know nothing (Socrates)

sure if there is a way to unpack it from the container real uses (this excludes drm'ed he-aac files)

sirber
thats the beauty of an open standard like mpeg-4 (which aac is part of):
many suppliers can offer different implementations of the open standard and they all are compliant with each other!
the same goes with mpeg-4 video (like xvid, divx5, 3ivx, nero digital are all mpeg-4 codecs)

but to be 100% spec compliant you would have to use the container defined in the mpeg-4 standard and thats mp4 (also not avi)!
i guess real will use their *.rm container, but the aac bitstream in it is 100% complaint with a he-aac bitstream produced by nero for example (and i am pretty sure coreaac will handle it)
the great thing with an open standard is you can choose which implementation you like best (as both will not produce the same quality for example)

and thats why i dont like proprietary formats like wmv9 and rv9, as they dont follow an open standard, which everyone can follow and everyone can build a codec following this standard

Quote:

Originally posted by bilu
By MP4 container do you mean audio-only MP4 streams?

yes as a first step
as rv9 and rv10 isnt mpeg-4 complaint they cant really put such realvideo streams in mp4, which means that mp4 could only be used for aac audio in real

__________________
Between the weak and the strong one it is the freedom which oppresses and the law that liberates (Jean Jacques Rousseau)I know, that I know nothing (Socrates)

I got tired of RealPlayer when it began hijacking your computer on install. I tried RealOne Player to see if it still ran roughshod over your system. It did and does. So, is Real's newest player equally guilty of an attempted coup of your computer? With the advent of RealAlternative and the fact that I now encounter a Real Media file only rarely, I'm not taking the chance that installing this new RealPlayer will corrupt my computer and force a complete reinstall of the operating system just to get rid of it and its bugs and spies.

Thanks for all the good feedback and questions! Enough to start a small FAQ already..

Some answers, hopefully I did not miss too many:

@AAC enthusiasts:AAC and HE-AAC questions
The current ripping format is AAC wrapped in RM (.ra), but raw AAC and HE-AAC (ADTS) play back without problems. AAC wrapped in MP4 also used to work, but it was decided to not include it in this Beta version, since we do not currently also play back MP4 video, due to licensing issues. If you happen to obtain our MP4 renderer, MP4 wrapped files will play back. RealPlayer 10 does not currently rip to HE-AAC, frankly because it was too expensive to license it, as well as problems obtaining HE-AAC codecs for all devices we need to support.

@Pamel:I presume that the Real container bitstream has not changed? (Still on 1.0?) I was just wondering if any of the extraction tools would need to be altered.
container format should be the same, I have not yet tried much AAC encoding, or extraction, but will.

@D-C:does the rv-aac codec support 5.1 output ?
No 5.1 for AAC. Perhaps later. The Multi-channel codec is still RA8 based.

@datascab:How long before us mere mortals can enjoy Real 10 (audio/video) without shelling out for the plus version.
A "Helix" Producer will be out shortly. Personally I wish they did not have a Basic/Plus differentation even for the commercial version of Producer. The Basic version is crippled enough to not be useful for anyone but the most casual user.
Does the new AAC based encoding still require the downsampling to 44.1kHz?
I think so. Will check.

Has rmeditior been changed at all, specifically allowing lossless cut and join?
No.

@LiFe: Historically, we have released a new video codec every two years, but there is nothing to stop this trend from changing with for instance RV 11. What's new with RV 10, is that it uses the same bitstream as the previous codec. This is a great advantage for content creators who do not like to change formats that require a player update, as well as hardware device porting.

@iwod:Vp6 is currently leading the game in Low Bitrate encoding where RealVideo has nearly NO serious competition at all in the past.
In terms of PSNR in Sagittaire's latest test, VP6 leads by a small margin, yes. In general, as you know, subjective opinions vary greatly, and other views have been posted. Personally I think VP6 is RV10's closest competitor in terms of compression efficiency. On2's very skilled codec developers have made great progress.

@DAvenger:Install (uninstall) problem. How to remove old players and codec packs
Weird problem. I am sure QA ran the installer uncountable number of times without running into this, or it would have been fixed. Sounds like it tried to uninstall old RealPlayer(RealOne), but uninstaller was missing. Codec pack, perhaps? Not sure what I can do, since I really need some more information to file a bug report. Maybe .r1pclean.exe will help. This should remove all remnants of old players as well as RealProducers and RealServers, hopefully also codec packs, I don't really know.. Use at your own risk.

RealPlayer improvements..
Yes, the UI looks very similar, with perhaps too few changes IMHO, but there are plenty of improvements under the hood. Better and more accurate video playback with less jitter. LivePause and fastforward. Much improved music library. Everything is smaller, faster and quicker, but it was never meant to be a video only player, which MPC and others do so well.

Despite its many features, uses less memory than WMP and iTunes, and does not run +10MB of background services like one of these, name withheld. MPC already works with the new DLLs included in RealPlayer 10. Oh, and did you know you can play the songs purchased from other music stores in RealPlayer 10? I just played a song I bought from iTunes. And of course integration with a long list of h/w devices, as well as the new RealGuide and Music Store.

RealPlayer 10 does not do any attempts to "hijack" your computer. It asks to be player for filetypes once, you make a selection, it never asks again, or tries to recover filetypes. You can turn the Message Center completely off, as well as all auto-updates. I know how annoying previous versions were. This is not perfect, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.

However, as has been the case for a while, no one is forcing you to ever run it to play back RealVideo and RealAudio, since there are alternatives for video enthusiasts, but I fear that codec pack installers do not install or uninstall properly, and may really mess up your system. If you want to use another player, install RealPlayer, perhaps run .r1pclean.exe first, if you have a lot of old Real DLLs or codec packs around.